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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
National
Joe Sullivan

What maps and data can tell us about the independence referendum results

RESULTS of the Scottish independence referendum started flowing in 10 years ago on Thursday, with Clackmannanshire being the first council to declare on the morning of September 19.

A decade on, let's take a look at how Scotland voted – and why.

Scotland's Yes belt

Four out of Scotland's 32 local authorities registered majority votes for Yes – but these councils have more than 20% of the country's population.

Three of the four – Glasgow City, West Dunbartonshire and North Lanarkshire – were in Strathclyde, while the fourth was Dundee City Council.

Dundee was Scotland's biggest Yes council, with 57.3% support, followed up by West Dunbartonshire at 54%.

Up next was Glasgow, at 53.5%, then North Lanarkshire at 51.1%.

The six most socially deprived councils in Scotland – including those four, and adding Inverclyde and North Ayrshire – all had the highest proportion of Yes votes.

Inverclyde had a 49.9% support for Yes, while North Ayrshire had 48.9%.

The odd coalition

Meanwhile, the councils with the highest No votes were an odd coalition, joining the island councils with both rural and urban local authorities.

Orkney recorded the highest percentage of No votes, with Shetland coming closely behind in 4th place.

The Scottish Borders had the highest rate of No votes on the mainland at a round 66.6%, while Dumfries and Galloway came next at 67.5%.

The relatively urban East Renfrewshire came next, with 63.2% support for No, followed up by the decidedly less so East Lothian at 61.7%.

The council most representative of the Scotland-wide total was West Lothian, with 44.8% support for Yes and 55.2% for No – just 0.1% off the national result for each.

What demographics tells us

Academic analysis of the results came within weeks of the referendum, producing studies and polls that explored which groups of Scots voted which way.

The Scottish Referendum Study, published in 2014 and backed by the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, found that No voters came from a range of backgrounds.

It found that Protestants, the very young and very old, people on average incomes and women were more likely to vote No.

Meanwhile, young and middle age people, people on lower incomes and men were more likely to vote Yes.

In a blog post in late September 2014, polling expert John Curtice made his own deep dive into the results.

Based on polling conducted during and after the referendum, he found that the age group with the highest Yes support was people in their late 20s and early 30s.

He also found that people in working class occupations were significantly more likely to vote Yes than those in middle class occupations.

The highest indication of Yes support he found was employment status – for areas with relatively high unemployment, the Yes vote was 51%, while in those with lower rates it was 39%.

Finally, he found that the councils which had the highest No votes were in the top seven in terms of number of people born in the UK, and the top six in terms of number of people describing themselves as "British" in the 2011 census.

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